Samenvatting

The Netherlands encounters an increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. One way to decrease those emissions is the improvement of sustainability. The subject area of the research is “sustainability in the agricultural sector in the Netherlands”, as well as using production planning as a solution to boost sustainability in the agricultural sector. Pillars of sustainability are environmental, social or economic. Although the research is based upon environmental sustainability, the nature of this research allows the examination of the social and economic pillars as well. Environmental sustainability is a condition of balance, resilience, and interconnection that enables human society to meet its needs, while not exploiting the capacity of its ecosystems. To understand the connection between production planning and sustainability, the main research question is formulated as: “How can production planning in the agricultural sector contribute to sustainability improvements in the Netherlands?”